Staff celebrated their time with us at our Scotland long service awards in Glasgow last night (Thursday).

Twenty-six Glasgow and Eurocentral workers with more than 500 years service between them were honoured.

Long-serving staff gathered with their partners for the awards held at the Hotel du Vin in Glasgow’s Devonshire Gardens.

From grimy press halls to state-of-the-art print technology, Monica Martin’s 30-year production career in Scotland has spanned a vast amount of change.

The Eurocentral operations manager spoke about the momentous change from mono to full colour printing.

She said: “When we first went from mono to full colour printing, it was an exciting project and one where there was always the debate of what difference would colour make to the customers buying the paper with many for and just as many against the cause.

“All print staff undertook a colour theoretical training course at Glasgow College of Building and Printing, followed up by four weeks of in-house training where a training room with ‘old’ print presses was set up.

“We had two trainers, one who clearly believed it was a job for men and not wee girls like me. The result being that every task and test we were asked to perform gave me a ‘well done’ and a ‘do it again’ depending who I asked.

“We all learned a lot in those days and the thought on everyone’s mind turned to why wouldn’t anyone want a paper full of colour pictures?’

Long-serving Scottish Sun picture editor Mark Sweeney, who joined us on a contract basis in 1985 before going on to Scottish Sun staff in 1990, said: “I think the most momentous story I covered was the Lockerbie plane disaster back in 1988.

“Being amongst the first snappers on the scene, it was like being on the set of a disaster movie and at first difficult to take in what had actually happened there on that night.

“It was a real challenge to physically get into the town, get snaps of the chaos and then, most importantly, get them moving on the wires to the office.

“I had a darkroom kit in those days to develop black and white and prints, to be then sent on a Muirhead drum machine after hooking it up to an analogue phone landline.

“I sent pictures that night that showed some of the drama, but it was the following day at a place called Tundergarth, a few miles from Lockerbie itself, where I came across the nose cone of the Pam Am 747 lying in a farmer’s field, which was to become the iconic image of the disaster.

“Digital cameras and mobile phones have taken press photography into a different world of speed, quality and choice. We almost take for granted now that we expect to see images, seconds after they have been taken, unthinkable in my first days at The Scottish Sun in 1986.”

Scotland business development manager Scott McCulloch reflected on his 20 years service: “It was a worrying start to my career at News as the Friday before I was due to start, the business decided to close the Today newspaper! Thankfully this didn’t affect me starting my career at News.

“The biggest thing to happen during my time here was when I met and married my wife Kath while we both worked at News.

“The success of The Scottish Sun through investment in editorial and marketing culminated in market leadership back in July 2006. This was a major achievement for us which changed the face of Scottish newspapers.

“Moving on 10 years, The Times is now following this journey and very soon should be the top-selling quality title in Scotland.

“Across the 20 years, I don’t think any two days have been the same here making this a fantastic business to be involved in.”

Eurocentral team manager Stuart Gunn, with 30 years service to his name, said: “Any changes or new challenges are the things that motivate me.

“Fortunately in my time with the business we have had plenty of both. I have been fortunate to work with some good people over the years who have brought professionalism with humour.

“I have had a few occasions which have stuck in my mind over the years. The very first time we carried out live printing at Kinning Park in Glasgow always stands out.

“It was a challenge to say the least that evening but it was carried out with enthusiasm and humour by all present. Thankfully over the years we progressed with new technology and further training which helped us reduce our waste and improve our performance.

“I have been involved in printing and the press hall from the start and the introduction of the new Man Roland presses at Kinning Park was another notable occasion for me.

“The move to Eurocentral had me involved in the planning of the press hall and any operational changes we would need. The latest was the achievement of the Shingo Award for manufacturing excellence for Eurocentral in which I had a large part to play as an area lead and manager.”

SCOTLAND LONG SERVICE AWARDS

Glasgow – 25 years: Mark Sweeney, Scottish Sun.

20 years: Craig Martin and Scott Campbell, both Scottish Sun; Joseph Miller, Publishing Services; Scott McCulloch, business development manager – Scotland.

15 years: Alan McGowan, Antony Archer, Graeme Donohoe, Kenneth McAlpine, Steven Perry, Scott Dolan, Jonathan Doran, Robert Grieve, Derek McGregor, Mark Kamba, Nicholas McQuade and Andy Devlin, all Scottish Sun.

Eurocentral – 30 years: Stuart Gunn, John Kerr, Monica Martin, Thomas Shaw and Alan Miller.

15 years: Robert Binks, Mark McChristie, John Binks and Alan Hall.